seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
a. 1 John 4:6 Or spirit
This is from enduringword.com.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God: True prophecy, and true teaching, will present a true Jesus. In John’s day, the issue was about if Jesus had truly come in a real body of flesh and blood. Many Gnostic-influenced teachers said that Jesus, being God, could not have actually become a flesh and blood human being, because God could have no partnership with “impure” material stuff.
“This statement would be directed against some form of Docetism, the view that Christ was a spirit who only seemed to be a true man.” (Boice)
Today, some groups deny that Jesus is really God (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Muslims). But way back in John’s day, in this time closest to the actual life and ministry of Jesus on this earth, people didn’t have a hard time believing Jesus was God. They had a hard time believing that he was a real man. This false teaching said Jesus was truly God (which is correct), but really a “make-believe” man.
Today, we are passionate about saying, “Jesus is God,” and we should be. But it is no less important to say, “Jesus is a man,” because both the deity and humanity of Jesus are essential to our salvation.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God: Some think that this is the only test of false doctrine. This is not the only test, but it was the significant issue challenging the church in John’s immediate time. Today a person might confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh yet deny that He is God as the Bible teaches He is God. They also are giving false doctrine because they are not presenting a true Jesus.
The principle of presenting a true Jesus is essential to the testing of spirits. No one who presents a false Jesus, or one untrue to the Scriptures, can be regarded as a true prophet.
Today, there is a lot of curiosity about the “true Jesus.” Many modern academics say they want to discover the “true Jesus” and when they say this they often mean, “The true Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Biblical Jesus is make-believe. We need to discover the true Jesus behind the myths of the Bible.”
Not only is this position ignorant (ignoring the confirmed historical validity of the New Testament) it is also arrogant. Once any academic throws out the historical evidence of the New Testament and other reliable ancient writings, they can only base their understanding of Jesus on their own personal opinion. These academics present their baseless opinions as if they were scholarly facts.
This is the spirit of the Antichrist: To deny the true Jesus is the basis of the spirit of the Antichrist, which John has already mentioned in 1 John 2:18-23. It is the spirit which both opposes the true Jesus and offers a substitute Jesus.
The devil doesn’t care at all if you know Jesus or love Jesus or pray to Jesus – as long as it is a false Jesus, a make-believe Jesus, a Jesus who is not there, and who therefore cannot save.
Is now already in the world: Though it will have its ultimate consummation in an end-times political and economic ruler, the essence of this antichrist spirit is present with us today. It is found everywhere a false Jesus is promoted in place of the true Jesus of the Bible.
He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world: This means the Christian has no place for fear. We have many spiritual enemies, but not one of them is greater than Jesus who lives in us.
Earlier in the letter, John brought up the idea of the world and its threat to the Christian life (1 John 2:15-17). He presented the world not as the global earth or the mass of humanity, which God Himself loves (John 3:16). Instead it is the community of sinful humanity that is united in rebellion against God. Here, John suggests that there are forces of spiritual darkness that guide and influence the world.
He who is not of God does not hear us: Understanding just who hears what God has taught us through the apostles, as recorded in the New Testament, helps us to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. If someone hears what God has said in the Bible, we know he has the spirit of truth. If he does not hear it, he has the spirit of error.
John makes it clear that error has a spiritual dynamic to it; it isn’t just about being educated or smart. Some very educated, very smart people can still be influenced mightily by the spirit of error. Since error has a spiritual dynamic to it, keeping in the spirit of truth is a spiritual issue.
We keep in the spirit of truth by clinging to Jesus, the One who said I am the truth (John 14:6).
And knows God: There are several different words in the ancient Greek language translated “know” into English. This specific word for knows (ginosko) is the word for a knowledge by experience. John is saying when we really experience God it will show by our love for one another.
Of course, this love is not perfected in the life of a Christian on this side of eternity. Though it may not be perfected, it must be present – and it should be growing. You can’t truly grow in your experience of God without also growing love for one another. John can boldly say, He who does not love does not know God. If there isn’t real love for God’s people in your life, then your claim to know God and experience God isn’t true.
God is love: There are few people who really know and really believe that God is love. For whatever reason, they won’t receive His love and let it transform their lives. It transforms our life to know the love of God in this way.
“There is love in many places, like wandering beams of light; but as for the sun, it is in one part of the heavens, and we look at it, and we say, ‘Herein is light.’… He did not look at the Church of God, and say of all the myriads who counted not their lives dear unto them, ‘Herein is love,’ for their love was only the reflected brightness of the great sun of love.” (Spurgeon)
That God has sent His only begotten Son into the world: John is careful to call Jesus the only begotten Son. This special term means Jesus has a Sonship that is unique (only) and begotten indicates that Jesus and the Father are of the same substance, the same essential Being.
We use the term create to describe something that may come from someone, but isn’t of the same essential nature or being. A man can create a statue that looks just like him, but it will never be human. However, we use the term beget to describe something that is exactly the same as us in essential nature and being. We are adopted sons and daughters of God, but we are not of the same essential nature and being as God – we are human beings. But Jesus is the only begotten Son, meaning His Sonship is different than ours; He was and is of the same essential nature and being as God the Father. We are human beings; He is a “God-being” – who added humanity to His deity.
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins: This shows the love of God. It might have shown enough love that the Father sent the Son, and not some lower-grade angel; but He sent the Son, not on a fact-finding mission or merely a mission of compassion – He sent the Son to die for our sins.
“If God had merely sent Jesus to teach us about Himself, that would have been wonderful enough. It would have been far more than we deserved. If God had sent Jesus simply to be our example, that would have been good too and would have had some value… But the wonderful thing is that God did not stop with these but rather sent His Son, not merely to teach or to be our example, but to die the death of a felon, that He might save us from sin.” (Boice)
If we love one another, God abides in us: This is the greatest evidence of God’s presence and work among us – love. Since no one has seen God at any time, this provides evidence for the presence of God.
Some people think the greatest evidence of God’s presence or work is power. Some people think the greatest evidence of God’s presence or work is popularity. Some people think the greatest evidence of God’s presence or work is passionate feelings. But the greatest evidence of God’s presence and work is love. Where God is present and working, there will be love.
Sometimes Jesus seemed weak and lacking in power, but He was always full of love. Sometimes Jesus wasn’t popular at all, but He was always full of love. Sometimes Jesus didn’t inspire passionate feelings in people at all, but He was always full of love. Love was the constant, greatest evidence of the presence and work of God in Jesus Christ.
He has given us of His Spirit: John brings up the work of the Holy Spirit in us at this point for two important connections. First, it is the Spirit of God in us that is the abiding presence of Jesus – the presence of His Spirit is how He abides in us. Secondly, it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit within us that makes it possible for us to know that we abide in Him. As Paul puts it in Roman 8:16: The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The Holy Spirit gives us this assurance.
He first loved us: This verse not only declares our love for Jesus, it also tells us when He loved us. Some people imagine that Jesus loved us because He knew we would love Him and come to faith in Him. But He loved us before that, and even before the worlds were created, when our only existence was in the mind and heart of God, Jesus loved us.
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar: By this crucial measure, Jesus said the world could measure our status as disciples by the measure of our love for one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35).
There is a difference between the love of man, and divine love. “These verses are the equivalent of saying that a person cannot practice agape-love unless he can first practice philia-love.” (Boice)
I didn't post all of the commentary..... it's even longer.... and that means John must be explaining a concept.... the commentaries always get long winded when a concept is the subject.
There is one part of the commentary that really startled me.
“This statement would be directed against some form of Docetism, the view that Christ was a spirit who only seemed to be a true man.” (Boice)
Yesterday I figured that there were people who just couldn't get over the fact that Jesus the Messiah was hung on a Roman Cross and survived. I figured out that a lot of the people in the pews have no problem with the Jesus who was born in a manger and received gifts from the three kings [who weren't there when Jesus was actually in the stable] ... but they cannot wrap their head around the whole "empty tomb" stuff. After all, the tomb was sealed... and there was a Roman Soldier guarding the entrance.
Here I read that they explain it by saying Jesus was not a real human.
If Jesus wasn't a real human, then what's the point?
Yesterday I figured the reason Jesus had to become a human was so that humans couldn't tell God... "you don't know what it's like to be a human and deal with all these temptations!" That would put a real damper on the whole Judgement event. So.... I figure Jesus had to become human, feel those temptations, and prove that a human can indeed resist temptation.
John writes that we are the adopted children of God. Jesus Is God's "real" Son. Jesus isn't adopted.... He was there when God sculpted us. I wonder, now, if Jesus had a part in sculpting His own human body. It doesn't really matter if God sculpted it or if Jesus helped.... Jesus would have known how to operate it..... but when He became a human... He had to figure it all out from inside the human body.... and that's a lot different.
I crochet. My daughter asked me to crochet thigh high leg warmers for her for Christmas. I couldn't find a good pattern.... I have to make alterations to every pattern I like... just to get them to fit. See we have exceptionally long legs. She's not a tall girl and I am.... but her legs are almost as long as mine. When I am crocheting... I am thinking of her... and I am remembering all the cute things she did growing up... and what a wonderful woman she has turned out to be. I love her.... I've loved her since I found out she was coming into the world.
God created Adam and Eve.... because He wanted human companionship. He told Adam and Eve what to do.... Eve decided to take the serpent's advice instead.... and then she passed it along. Humans started dying. God didn't want them to die. He had to send an antidote..... One of the problems with dealing with Eve and the apple.... was Eve's defense.... "God didn't know what it's like to be taken in by a slick talking carnival barker." I bet she even thought that by expanding her experience.... by experiencing the taste of the fruit.... she told herself she was learning so she could have more to talk about when she was in the Garden with God.... but that was a lie.... and God had to correct that error or the world would lose all it's human population.
So Jesus had to come.... It was planned from the time God and Jesus were sculpting her. God knew she was going to do it.... and He knew He was going to have to be a human to understand a human. Humans are capable of deciding what is right and what is wrong. They don't always work on instinct. That is what makes us different from all the other creations. We were created to communicate with God. God made us because He wanted to... and He made us human because he wanted to.... and He sent Jesus to correct the "sin" issue because He wanted to.
God sent Jesus to "pay" because He wanted to. Jesus became a human because He wanted to. Jesus died on a Roman Cross and He was laid in a borrowed tomb because He wanted to. Jesus left that guarded and sealed tomb because He wanted to. Jesus called His Disciples on the shore and invited them to a fish dinner before He went back home to Heaven.... where God is.... because He wanted to.
They, God and Jesus..... did all this because they wanted to..... because they love us....
God loved us first. Jesus had to come to earth as a real human.... because He had to know what it feels like to be tempted. Jesus was willing to be a human.... because He loved us first.
Make no mistake... Jesus was ALL MAN....
